Saturday, November 17, 2007

Andy A. Sartori Interview

To be honest, when I first listened to the samples of the forthcoming solo album of guitarist Andy A. Sartori, I couldn’t believe my ears! Finally his first album “Dragon’s Fire” is available through itunes and it proved to be a real masterpiece Of Neo-classical Power Metal! I lost no time and I contacted Andy for a detailed interview, so you can read the rest…

Can we have some more info regarding the rest of the members of your Symphony project?Sartori: Well....the band consists of: Scott Board on the vocals (ex Cerebus), James Creed on the bass who's someone who's with me for years since my London times and on drums I have Dino Castano. Dino grew up in New Jersey but he's from Italy and he’s the only new member on this project at the moment.

Will the line-up of your first CD remain “untouched” for the next releases?Sartori: Well, as you know I'm a solo guitar player so I can't tell for how long these musicians will stay with me, what is something that happens to all solo guitar players anyway, but we all click together very well, so I hope we last together as long as possible!

9splendid tracks of qualitative Neo-classical Power Metal are included in your debut CD and I must congratulate you for that. Can you focus in the lyrical content and tell us what your lyrics are about?Sartori: I think it's really hard to make many comments on my songs as I'm the composer, but all of them were composed by inspiration, they all came from riffs and ideas and I love them all!! About the lyrics… well, all of my lyrics are very positive, you won't find anything evil or negative on my songs or my lyrics at all. In a few ones I talk about personal experiences I had through my life just because I use some fantasy, but who doesn't write about kings, queens and dragons???“Through The Eyes Of My Soul” is a classic one already, in my opinion! Which is your favorite song from the album?Sartori: In my opinion it's really hard to tell, like I said before I love all of them. Just think this: I don't compose songs just to finish albums or because I needed an extra song. All these songs were composed with inspiration and passion, so it's really hard to tell.

I must note however that the bad production of the songs posted in itunes is a major drawback of the album. Why they don’t have the proper sound? Do you plan to do something about it?Sartori: Well record labels are for me what I call "necessary evil" because without them if you compose original music and you want to be in the business, you're not going nowhere. So I expected something good and they gave something completed different, but it's being fixed now !!! I was in the studio redoing all the equalization, mixing and mastering of it!!! So very soon, they will release the new version what will be what it suppose to be...a proper album!!! And I can ensure all my fans that they won't be disappointed!!!

When do you plan to release “Dragon’s Fire” in CD format?Sartori: It depends on the label and I have no information at the moment about it! As more people will ask for the album in stores, the faster they will release it.

How difficult is for a virtuoso to survive in the current U.S. Metal scene? Does qualitative music is destined for extinction in the U.S.?Sartori: It's not that bad if you are in the right place! there's a lot of market here for anything really...that's why a lot o bands can still tour and survive, and like any other kind of metal I can truly say it's something that will never die, that's space for everybody, you just have to find yours!

Tell me about your musical influences that forced you to play this kind of music. Which bands also attract you nowadays?Sartori: Well, my mother is a classically trained piano player and my father always played the acoustic guitar so since I was a little kid I had always been into music, but I grew up listening to classical baroque music and metal and rock I found about it when I was about 10 and never gave up after that!!! my influences come from Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven and as guitar players I used to study many from Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Kee Marcelo and the list goes. What I did was learn whatever I needed and from all of this, make my own style based on my influences, and I think that's pretty ok as often you don't copy anybody....

Is there any possibility of touring in order to promote your work?Sartori: Yes, the record company doesn't set tours but they have some booking agencies they work with so they can hook us up. There's nothing set yet.

You released your album through itunes. Do you think that digital downloading is the future which will help artists survive against the “slavery” of big record labels??Sartori: No, never!!!! Because like I said...record labels are necessary evil, but remember...necessary, so any band will always depend on them to go somewhere on their careers unless you make your own record label, I really don't think itunes is the future at all!!! Because from digital you have the songs but not the true album, so when you buy the album in a store you get the real thing with all the booklet, photos and etc....

What is your future plan regarding your project? Do you also plan to work on some other projects as well?Sartori: My plans are just to keep going, my next album is already predicted for September 2008, and at the moment I don't have any plans to do any different project at all!

Add anything you may want.Sartori: So I'd like to thank you once again for all the support and to all my fans around the world: thank you very much for all the love and support through all these years, you're the best!!!! God bless you all!!!Dimitris Starakis